Parents enjoy quiet
in week without TV

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, April 26, 2005

BROOKFIELD - This week, there will be "no TV daze," said Brookfield mom Donna Bonner.

That's because she and her husband and daughter are not going to watch television.

"It's peaceful in the house," Bonner said Monday, the first day her family went without television. "We tend to turn the TV on all the time."

Bonner and her family are taking part in
TV-Turnoff Week
, a week-long international event organized by the TV-Turnoff Network in 1994. The group's mission is to encourage children and their families to watch less TV and become involved in healthy activities.

Bonner and her daughter,
Lily
, 6, a Center School first-grader, plan to do science projects, bake cookies, enjoy the outdoors and more.

Part of the
Parent Teach Organization
, Bonner helped to send out letters to parents a few weeks ago that told families about the TV-Turnoff Week and suggested fun alternate activities.

The letter included a form kids could fill out, detailing what they did all week instead of watching television. Kids who fill out the form and turn it in at the end of the week will receive a certificate of participation, Bonner said.

Lily was busy with alternate activities Tuesday, when she invited some friends over to paint pots and play outside. Lily said she had fun and didn't think at all about TV.

"She is getting excited about our plans for the week," Bonner said. "It is a celebration of family life."

"I think it's great," Montville said. She and her husband,
Jeff
, and their two other children
Jessica
, 4, a preschooler, and
Jacqueline
, 8, a
Huckleberry Hill School
second-grader, are all trying to abstain from watching TV this week.

Montville said usually on Mondays, the children watch cartoons, but not this week. "They are doing really good," she said.

Julia admitted it was tough to live without television.

"I like watching it a lot," she said.

But she had fun doing other activities with the Bonners.

"I liked painting," Julia said, and she had fun playing basketball.

Bonner said the TV-Turnoff Week comes at a great time.

"It's spring. We can even observe nature more," she said.

The family loves to garden. Normally, though, Lily, who loves plants, will try to hurry through it so she can watch a TV program.

Bonner hopes she and Lily can put together a scrapbook of their accomplishments for the week.

She would like a parent from each class to do a scrapbook documenting what students did during the week without TV.
Contact Heather Barr